TOURISM BOOM: Overseas visitors splash on Sunshine Coast

Bill HoffmanWhether taking on developers hell-bent on destroying the Coast’s natural appeal or a Prime Minister indifferent to the plight of the poor, Bill Hoffman has never been one to mince his words. Bill’s been a journalist for 32 years, 29 of those on the Coast. Love him or hate him, he'll get you blogging.

THE Sunshine Coast is in the middle of a tourism boom with an explosion in international visitors and a massive spike in the amount of money they spend while here.

Figures produced by Tourism Research Australia released today by the State Government show international visitors are not only staying longer but spent a record $245.3 million while here, a 26.7% jump to the end of June this year compared with 2015.

The increased spend came off the back of a 3.5% increase to 266,000 in the number of international visitors to this region.

The data reveals the number of nights spent on the Sunshine Coast by international visitors had jumped 11.8% to 2.8 million nights with the average length of stay increasing to 10.6 nights per visitor.

Best performing markets included US which is up 36.2% and New Zealand which grew by eight per cent.

The impact of the so-called "Backpacker Tax" introduced by the Federal Government to more heavily-tax back packers doing season work has hurt that market with Noosa backpacker resort numbers down 5.1%.

The result was mitigated to an extent by a increase of 22% in the number of non-back packer international visitors to Noosa.

Visit Sunshine Coast CEO Simon Latchford said the result was backed by a large jump in winter school holiday numbers, a result likely to be matched later this month with most accommodation houses reporting strong bookings for the Spring break.

International visitors here specifically to holiday grew 7.8% to 209,000 while the number of nights they spent on the Coast jumped 35.7% to 1.6 million.

Holidaying visitors stayed an average 7.5 nights per person.

"The success of our Sunshine Coast campaigns in the USA and New Zealand are the stand-out trends in these figures," Mr Latchford said.

"The lower Australian dollar has definitely had an impact, but we believe it is the attraction of what we offer that is driving visitor numbers to the Sunshine Coast.''

Mr Latchford praised Sunshine Coast Council's event strategy saying it had given tourism marketers another avenue to leverage their sell.

And he said the industry was now working together for the common good, something that had been particularly evident in the past 15 months.

"We've just scratched the tip of the iceberg,'' he said. "Once the airport extra runway is in it will go to another level.''

But he warned against the region pursuing growth for growth's sake saying that while we may like to visit the Gold Coast we do not want to turn the Sunshine Coast into Las Vegas.

"We need to retain what is special and unique through appropriate growth, not growth for growth's sake,'' Mr Latchford said.

"We work very closely with our local partners in Noosa, Gympie and further afield - such as Fraser Coast - to create compelling reasons not only to visit, but stay longer.

"When you can experience the richness of the Sunshine Coast and Fraser Island you are experiencing a compelling combination of world heritage nature parks, the most attractive marine and rainforest experiences, and sophisticated dining and entertainment.

"Our attractions - particularly Australia Zoo, which had a huge profile in America in 2015 - have clearly had a profound effect on visitation, and with the prospect of a new runway at Sunshine Coast Airport, we have incredible potential to grow international visitation from the Asia Pacific region in the years to come."